The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music

Dear friends,
As many of you know, that movie has been a pillar of my life. We went to Austria the first time, with my whole family, in 1965, just after the movie came out, and I got a dirndl from the window in Habig's in Kartnerstrasse, which FIT me-- a miracle for a chubby kid--- and I said to myself, this is a country where I could fit! So when I got to the question of going away for junior year abroad, I was definitely going to Austria. I took German to be prepared, and I learned with Judy Cloherty, Terry Pfeiffer, Jeff Clark and Gene Gilully and others to make kugelhupfs (Bundt cakes with powdered sugar) for the school fair. Gene's mom, who was Austrian, gave us a lot of tips, to help us prepare. I figured we would fly in over the alps, just like in the entrance to the movie!
I wore my dirndl often, as I grew up and got into college, and I learned every note of the Sound of Music score. My parents went to Europe and Africa a few years later, and I wrote new words for the Climb Every Mountain song, to wish them well on their trip-- my sisters wore their dirndls, I strummed the zither, and we sang it at the goodbye party for them-- "climb every pyramid, see Holland too; go to darkest Africa, in our dreams we'll come with you!" My parents always requested that song from us at every party our family had for the rest of the decades of their lives!
My children have been raised on the songs, and have grudgingly admitted that they find it a comfort now, when they watch this well-loved movie with me.
As I am an obstetrician, and wait for babies to slide down from the fields of glory, I often sing "Raindrops on Roses" for women in labor, who sometimes ask me to sing for them. "When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when you're feeling bad, (aimed at laboring women), I simply remember my favorite things, and then I don't feel so bad!" We sing it in the CSection room sometimes, when all is going well, it helps calm people down-- one of the anesthesiologists plays it for me on his music player-- and we all have a rollicky time!
Twice, I have won the Sound of Music sing-along competition at San Francisco, for acting the part of the 3rd runner up at the Salzburg festival--- I wear my echt dirndl, and lace-up brown boots that look like the 30's, and wear my hair wound in pugs around my ears, and bow and grin and bow and grin like Fraulein Schneider from St. Agatha's in Muhrbach-- everyone stomps and screams "third runner up!" and I win, against the girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, and the nuns, and the green felt "Climb every mountain", and even the 'brown paper packages tied up with strings!" Kathy and Lindsey were with me the first time I won-- and Kathy took a picture of me on the stage-- I didn't believe I would win, but she thought much better of my chances! Bonnie and Margaret came with me the second time, and we wore our dirndls, and Bonnie wore her loden coat. I tried to get Andy to wear Greg's lederhosen, and play the part of Rolf, but he preferred to act like The Captain, and wear his dad's loden hat-- but he didn't get a prize, here in Santa Cruz, where the winner was the goat and goatherder act! The woman had puppet strings tied to a guy who looked very goat-like-- with Rasta hair!
I have even reflected that my husband is somewhat like the Captain, emotionally distant, but basically a good person who might be teased or coaxed into singing Edelweiss, (which has NOT happened yet), and that I am a lot like Maria. "I have confidence in sunshine, I have confidence in rain; I have confidence that spring will come again-- besides which, you see, I have confidence in ME!" I used to swing my guitar around like that-- and my husband has often complained that I burst into song at the least or NO provocation!
I have often thought of Tunie dancing in her kitchen to the Landler, while cooking dinner; watching it on a small tv.
Many, many times, I have thought about the problem of leaving a country where the government has become destructive and impossible to live with, and the time the Captain rebukes Uncle Max for his indifference to what is happening politically to the country he loves and honors.
When I was in residency in New York we went up to Stowe, to look at the lodge where the Von Trapps now live. I thought about the difference between the real story, and the story in the movie, and how Vermont is so like the Tirol.
My friend Gundi lives in Salzburg, very near the Mozarteum, where they sing "Doe, a deer", on the steps. We have maintained our friendship since 1965, and still write to each other. When I went to Salzburg with my family in summer 2001, Gundi was standing on the church steps waiting for us, as we drove into town, so she could show us where to park. We stayed at the Dreifaltigskeit monastery, which was letting out rooms-- it was a former bishop's palace, and it was amazing to stay in this large vaulted room there on the ground floor. I stood outside the Franciskanerkirche, while the Mozart festival singers were singing the Requiem inside-- and I held onto the pillar as they sang the "Dies Irae" which is one of the most powerful pieces of music I know! Gundi slipped me and Andy into behind the scenes at the Festspielhaus, where the Von Trapps sing the goodbye song just before they make their escape. We watched Bryn Terfel sing Falstaff, while I pinched myself, and couldn't believe we were actually standing ON THE STAGE, at the Salzburg festival, in real life. It was fantastic, amazing, miraculous-- one of the greatest highlights of my life.
My affection for that movie has continued unabated, all these years. One of the moments which remains electric to me is when Rolf discovers them in the cemetery, and the Captain tries to get him to come with them. Psychologically, it is an immensely important moment, when I want to say to the Captain, "NO-- don't say that to him! " Instead of saying "You'll never be one of them!" in a cruel way, he should have continued to encourage him by saying "You can come with us, and be more free!" It is the only moment in the movie I have always wanted to change.
As you know, I learned to sing a lot of folk songs from Frau Brossman, in Vienna, and I can still sing many of the Christmas carols, along with the Vienna choir boys' cd! I would love to go to the Christkindl markets again, and get little straw stars, and little carved wood figures for the Christmas tree. I gilded some walnuts for our Christmas tree, after seeing them in Austria.
I always wish I could have the puppet theatre they use for the Goatherd song. And I always wish my voice were as good as Maria's (or actually Julie Andrews) as she yodels through that song, like quicksilver sliding on the high notes effortlessly!'
Singing Jet Plane, we made it through that extraordinary year. One of the greatest miraculous moments in my life was singing at the reunion in Charleston, with my voice gone hoarse, and then completely gone with laryngitis-- and you all singing the words for me-- so that the song was coming from you, and from my heart, and I was playing the guitar, and your voices were my voice. I feel so very very blessed to have had you all in my life, and to have had that year in Vienna; and the way that the Sound of Music has been sort of a lace-work to hold my life together!
Love, martina